Black Panther is pre-selling at a faster rate than any movie released in Q1 ever

The records just keep coming. Only recently, the embargo on Black Panther was lifted and a review roundup of all critics had it sitting at a perfect 100% Rotten Tomatoes score with an average critic rating of 8.5. While that has since fallen down to 98%, it’s an impressive feat regardless. Earlier, Black Panther had already shattered records for advance ticket sales, besting Marvel’s own Captain America: Civil War in the process. Now, Fandango is reporting that Black Panther has gone a step further and become the best-selling pre-selling movie of all time among any movie released in the first quarter of a year.

This means, among the myriad of movies that Ryan Coogler’s buzzworthy superhero flick has raced past include The Hunger Games and last year’s Beauty and the Beast. The film’s opening weekend estimates too are being constantly revised; they started off somewhere with $98 – $100 million during January and are now projected as being as high as $150 million. Given the 4-day President’s Day weekend, some trade pundits even feel Black Panther has a shot at beating the $152 million that Deadpool took in Feb 2016.

By all accounts, Black Pantheris going to make a splash at the box-office. It remains to be seen how big that splash ends up being and how closely it aligns with analysts expectations. It also remains to be seen if the mal-intents of some rival groups ends up having a negative effect on its box-office performance.